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Happy Monday!
Made it back to the US after a short trip to Taipei. Instead of trying to fix my sleep schedule, I stayed up and made this recap 😆. Nothing too crazy to share from this past week, except JAL’s program getting flooded with points with a new 50% transfer bonus from Rove. After the Capital One bonus, Bilt bonus, and now Rove, I expect it to be very difficult to book JAL saver awards through their own program. Look for other sweet spots on partner airlines, which I highlighted in an email on March 1.
There’s also a bunch of new Amex and Chase offers and some good ones added earlier. Reminder to add them to potentially save money on your next trip, or during tax season, or for your binge shopping needs.
This week's highlights
New Amex & Chase offers
I have probably saved over $1,000+ in the last few years from American Express and Chase offers. These are essentially coupons attached to your credit card for various merchants, ranging from hotels to beauty products to apparel to services.
You should periodically check for these offers as you have to manually add them to your cards. American Express also has a quirk where you can only view 100 offers at a time. So you will need to add a bunch of them, log off, and log back in to view the rest of the offers.
Select offers to highlight
Amex: Virgin Atlantic spend $2,000+ get $250 back
Amex: Hilton Resorts US/Caribbean/LATAM spend $1,000+ get $200 back
Amex: Dell earn 5% back on purchases up to $500
Amex: TaxAct earn +5 MR per dollar up to 2,000 points
Chase: Lululemon 10% off your purchase for up to $30 back
Chase: TaxAct 25% off for up to $60 back
Chase: TurboTax 30% off for up to $20 back
A potential way to save time is using Cardpointers+, which runs scripts to automatically add these offers for me. They also have an app for subscribers that also helps tell you which cards to use based on coupons and earn rates and also tracks your 5/24 status and renewal dates. I personally only use it to auto add offers and I did pay for the lifetime subscription. More details can be found here about it, and get 30% off your subscription using my affiliate link (it does go up to 50% though so you may want to wait).
Source: Chase Offers
Source: American Express
Iberia raises redemption rates from Chicago
Spain’s flagship carrier Iberia has some of the best award rates to get to/from the US East Coast to Europe (Madrid), even after last year’s devaluation. Off-peak pricing is 40.5k points one-way for business class and 59k for peak. Chicago used to get this pricing, which was likely a mistake as Iberia has a distance-based award chart and the distance from ORD/MAD should have pushed it up a bucket to make it 50.5k off-peak and 74k peak. Someone at Iberia caught on and now that pricing appears to be fixed.
According to Thrifty Traveler, you may still be able to book at the old rate if you book through British Airways.
Source: Iberia
Rove Miles 50% transfer bonus to JAL
Rove is one of the newer kids on the block and is aiming to build a platform where you can earn, redeem, and transfer points without the need for a credit card. You can earn Rove Miles by shopping online and getting miles back (like Rakuten) or get miles from booking travel (like Bilt Travel).
The platform is currently offering a 50% transfer bonus to JAL through the end of March.
Positives
Some great transfer partners including Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa, AF/KLM, Air India, and Turkish Airlines
Great earn rates with some retailers including Giftcards dot com
Current 50% JAL transfer bonus through 3/31
Crazy good earn rates on select hotels (think 30-50% back via Rove Miles)
Ability to earn Rove Miles and hotel credits with Rove’s Loyalty Eligible Stays (some negative here too as cash rates might be higher vs. booking direct)
Sign up with my referral for 1,500 miles sign up bonus vs. public offer of 500 miles (negative is need 2,000 miles to transfer to a partner though)
Negatives
Usually takes 2-3 months for miles to post after a transaction
Need minimum 2,000 miles to transfer to partners
Newer start up so who knows what the longevity of the Rove’s current business model is
Limited customer support
Loyalty Eligible Stays may not be best cash price vs. booking direct but this is true with any hotel OTA platform
High-earning rate hotels are usually not the best vacation options and are hostels or lower-end hotels and are priced higher than booking through other OTAs
Source: Rove Miles
Improved Hilton award calendar chart view
Last week, I highlighted Amex Hilton no lifetime language (NLL) offers that let you get a second (or third or fourth…) Amex Hilton card with a sign up bonus (SUB). The no-fee and the Surpass cards are also offering free night certificates (FNC) as part of the SUB. These FNCs can only be used on days with “standard award availability”.
Well, it’s a little easier to find dates to use your FNCs due to a user interface change for Hilton’s award calendars. The award calendar will show standard room rewards in green now. So now we don’t have to memorize the partially-variable rate redemptions that are different by property.
Here’s an example of standard award availability at the Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal.
Source: Hilton
List of Amex Hilton Card offers (expires 4/15/26)
I shared these links last week and a few people emailed how helpful they were, so here they are again. These are not referral or affiliate links, they are special no lifetime language links that will let you get a SUB even if you already have/had the card. If you haven’t had the card you want to sign up for, reach out to a family member, friend, or use the Amex referral thread for a referral.
Source: Hilton
Explore Peru with purpose
See Peru through the eyes of the women who call it home on Intrepid’s brand-new Women’s Expedition.
With an expert local leader out front and a small group of like-minded women by your side, this trip connects you with the local communities you visit ,giving you a unique insight into Peru’s culture and traditions.
With an expert local leader out front and a small group of like-minded travellers by your side, this trip gives you a unique insight into Peru’s culture and traditions.
Part of Intrepid’s Women’s expedition range, this eight-day adventure has been thoughtfully designed to support local women in tourism while delivering immersive experiences specifically for women travellers.
You’ll traverse the lesser-known Chinchero to Urquillos trail in the Peruvian Andes alongside an all-female crew, spend time in an Andean village learning about daily life, take part in a traditional textile workshop led by local women and experience a spiritual cleansing ritual guided by a female shaman.